Don't know much biology

[cyrano]

So initially I was going to ask "UCSJ or U Santa Clara" but since I am the stupid, I searched for UC Santa Cruz and wow that looks attractive too. So, compare and contrast, students, considering that I'm probably looking at continuing either my History studies or my Political Science studies, or both. I'm leery of Santa Clara because it's not in the UC system and thus probably more expensive.

EDIT: Except of course that there is no such thing as UCSJ and it's SJSU which is still a public school just not necessarily in the UC system and thus possibly an intermediate class of expensive.

Comments

history

[eeyoresrays.livejournal.com]

Well, there are things you can get out of all of the schools. It shocks me that the UC system seems to be competing with tuition (in state) of a school like Santa Clara. I'd apply to Santa Clara and apply for financial aid.

Santa Cruz might be worth the move.

As a person who went to both systems(UCSB and CSUN)and majored in history in three schools for three successive degrees (but I stopped short of finishing the dissertation in history) I would strongly caution you against pursuing a degree in history unless you are only doing it for the ducation.

It is as limited to one field (education) as any other degree. And unless you get your final degree from a kick ass school (read Berkeley or Stanford from your area)you are very unlikely to be getting a tenure track job AND gettting a PhD is a longer and more difficult process in history.

Science or computer science is probably a much bettet option.

I now teach at a private high school (history) and I coach. It is a lifestyle that has its rewards, but I am having difficulties making ends meet and I am having to seriously consider throwing away my ten plus years of college for this profession and jumping out into a sales force somewhere with 23 year olds and high school graduates who make more money than I do right now. I've got retirement and college for three kids to think about and while I thought until recently it would all work out (even after I have moved to a much cheaper part of the country)but increasingly I am thinking, no, it won't.

Just a few pennies. Hope it wasn't an intrusion.

Re: history

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Not at all. I'm happy to hear advice, especially from those with experience. And Political Science (the other half of my double major) seems to be a little less limited in that I could go into Law or Teaching. I'm just... not certain that, even if I were scientifically inclined, any degree would serve me that much better in the work force. I'd be forty by the time I graduated, whatever the degree program, and I can't imagine any employer interested in starting a middle aged man on a career path. But my view of the future is strongly colored by reading Gibson and watching the world over the past twenty years.

Re: history

[eeyoresrays.livejournal.com]

Even if teaching is your primary goal science is easier to get hired at secondary or post-secondary levels.

In high school coach so and so often gets the class without a command of the material.

Re: history

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Oh trust me, I know. I *had* Coach So And So for many many years. It's one of the reasons that I had no interest in history (outside of going to SCA events and scoping the hot chicks) until I got into college--because of inept, uninterested teachers.